2017 China VPN Blog Page

About This Page

This page is a journal style blog where I just talk about whatever VPN servers are working good for me or just my random thoughts about using VPNs in China. It's highly disorganized and overly-detailed, the average VPN user will not find anything of interest on this page. If you are just looking for a good VPN for China and don't want to spend hours reading about my VPN usage over the past 6 months then go to the Best VPN for China page. If you are deeply interested in getting high VPN performance and advanced tips then keep reading.

If you think that providing this detailed information is helping the government block VPNs then you have a very poor understanding of the GFW works. 99% of all blocking is done automatically by algorithms and machine learning. China could block all VPN traffic if they wanted to, but they will never do this. Using a VPN or talking about using a VPN is not illegal in China. Check the VPN in China FAQ page for more information on this.

Certain providers such as Astrill are sometimes targeted specifically by the GFW. This is likely due to the fact that they advertise their service in Chinese language, market their service to locals in China, and partner with resellers that are enemies of the government (Great Fire dot org for example, I won't put the link here otherwise this website may get blocked). When Astrill gets blocked, they usually blame their customers for talking about their service on Twitter, online forums, etc. This is not the real reason for the blocking. You will also notice that Astrill needs to invent new protocols to keep their VPN working but other VPNs work fine with standard PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.

Feel free to talk about VPN server performance here. It's not illegal and you are not going to cause any VPN to get blocked. Leave your comments at the bottom of the page.

2017 VPN in China Blog Start Here....

The page was getting too large so I started a new one for 2017. If you are looking for the 2016 blog, you can find it here.

James' current top-recommended VPN servers for China

The below recommendations are based on my extensive testing with China Telecom 100M fibre in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China Unicom 4G mobile data, China Mobile 4G mobile data, and whatever other WiFi networks I find when I travel around China.

I am only including servers with the very best performance - low latency - high reliability - high download speed.

Many VPN servers work in China, this list only includes the best performing ones and does not take any other factors into consideration such as quality of apps, customer support, etc. For a more complete ranking taking all of these factors into consideration, check the best VPN for China page.

The speed and latency is not very good, as usual. At least it's working with standard OpenVPN, no need for Chameleon.

And that is all for 2017. See you on the 2018 VPN in China blog page, coming soon.

December 8, 2017 10:00am China Time

Long time no testing. I was in USA travelling the past few weeks and now I am in Canada.

These tests were done by remote access to a computer I left running at home in China.

Not much has changed since the last test 3 weeks ago. The same servers from ExpressVPN and VPN.ac that were working well before continue to work well. These 4 servers are the best and most stable servers you will ever find for China. They don't just work well today, they work well every day.

Unfortunately, NordVPN has been unreliable and I can no longer recommend it. After briefly working well in China, connections are almost impossible. If you are lucky enough to get a successful connection, then it will likely be very slow and unreliable.

I am going to start testing VyprVPN again as I believe that is now the third best option behind ExpressVPN and VPN.ac.

One more test. Here is the speed of Hong Kong 4 running OpenVPN UDP on my 180 CNY router with the ExpressVPN router app firmware.

My NordVPN subscription expired a few days ago. I just renewed it now but having trouble getting my credentials to update in the app. I will try to post some results from NordVPN within the next few days.

ExpressVPN and VPN.ac continue to work well (as always). However, ExpressVPN is still not working for Chinese websites. And the speed of the Hong Kong 1 server is now limited to 5Mbps for both HostAware and SoftLayer IP addresses.

Even though the speed is limited to 5Mbps, it's still the best server to use for general web browsing and video streaming because the connection is routed though a high quality China Telecom CN2 network with extremely low latency and low packet loss. It may only be 5 Mbps, but it's a stable 5 Mbps no matter what time of day it is.

If you are torrenting or downloading large files, then a server with higher speed such as ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4, or VPN.ac Taiwan would be a better choice.

October 29, 2017

No time for testing all the servers today, but just a quick tip for ExpressVPN customers.

The best and most reliable server is Hong Kong 1 but there is a small trick you need to know. This server has exit IPs from both HostAware and SoftLayer (you will be assigned one randomly each time you connect).

The SoftLayer IP has much faster speed than the HostAware IP.

I found that I consistently get around 5Mbps with the HostAware IPs and 20-25 Mbps with the SoftLayer IPs.

Below are the test results on 4 different connections to the HK1 server.

2. Connect to Hong Kong 1. Retry if it doesn't work on the first try. Only change to TCP if you absolutely cannot connect using UDP. If you still can't connect, reset your modem if you are using Wi-Fi. Or, put your phone in airplane mode and back to normal mode if you using mobile data. If you still can't connect, then try other servers such as Hong Kong 4.

3. Load beta.speedtest.net and check if the IP address is from HostAware or SoftLayer (look to the bottom left from the "Go" button).

4. If your IP is from HostAware, don't bother doing the speed test. Disconnect from ExpressVPN and connect again. Refresh the beta.speedtest.net page. Repeat until you see a SoftLayer IP.

5. Once you get a SoftLayer IP, do the speed test and confirm that the speed is good.

On another matter, ExpressVPN doesn't seem to work at all for Chinese sites right now. I was chatting with a Chinese visitor yesterday who told me about this problem. I tried to load Baidu and Taobao, both of which failed on all servers. I'm not sure if the GFW is blocking the exit IPs of ExpressVPN from accessing servers in China, or if ExpressVPN is blocking access to Chinese sites (possibly to prevent their servers from getting blocked by using too much China bandwidth?). In either case, hopefully things will go back to normal soon now that "the meeting" is finished.

If you need to route Chinese websites through a VPN, then I suggest that you try VPN.ac. The Taiwan and Hong Kong 1 servers both work very well with Chinese websites. In fact, I just did some shopping on Taobao yesterday while connected to VPN.ac Taiwan and it was very fast.

Their Android app also has a nice bypass features where you can exclude selected apps from using the VPN. Then, the VPN will be bypassed completely for the apps you choose.

If you haven't tried VPN.ac yet, I highly recommend it. It's my favorite "second VPN", which is something everyone in China should have.

Here is my latest YouTube video. How to signup, download, and install ExpressVPN from China without using another VPN.

I realized after I made this video that it's kind of pointless because someone in China without another VPN would be unable to watch videos on YouTube. Anyway, it might still be interesting for some people to see the sign-up process.

Here are some test results on China Telecom this morning. I had to stop the testing after VPN.ac because I was late for a meeting. The later testing (in blue background) was done using China Mobile (tethering from my phone go computer).

1. Sometimes the Hong Kong 1 server is not very fast, but if you re-connect, then you will get routed through different servers, and it will be much faster.

Not every connection to HK1 is the same. You need to do a speed test right after connecting to see if you got a good connection or not. If not, then reconnect and try the speed test again.

2. The peering on ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4 has been improved and it now performs very well with all 3 ISPs (althogh the latency is a little high on Unicom).

3. ExpressVPN HK1 and HK4 are now faster with UDP on China Mobile. Last week, TCP was much faster on China Mobile.

4. The ExpressVPN apps have been updated recently. Make sure you are using the latest version of the apps. One of the big improvements is that a connection attempt that is unsuccessful will be automatically cancelled and re-tried within the first few seconds.

Some of the locations seem to be trying to connect to different servers on subsequent connection attempts to circumvent the aggressive blocking that is happening right now. If you are using an older version of the app, you can manually cancel a connection attempt if it doesn't connect quickly, and just press the connect button again, to take advantage of this hidden feature of ExpressVPN that I don't yet fully understand.

Everything is working very good on China Telecom today. I'm going to test China Unicom and Mobile later today.

October 15, 2017 10:45pm to 11:00pm

I have been testing China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile today and yesterday. China Mobile and China Unicom are both not working very well right now.

For China Mobile, only ExpressVPN HK1 TCP is giving me decent speed. VPN.ac Hong Kong 1 is working as well but the speed is pretty slow. Most other VPN.ac servers will not connect at all. ExpressVPN has several other servers that connect, but like VPN.ac Hong Kong 1, the speed not great.

For China Unicom, the only 2 good servers are ExpressVPN HK1 and VPN.ac Taiwan, both with UDP. VPN.ac Hong Kong 2 and NordVPN Hong Kong (obfusicated) normally perform very well with China Unicom but the routing between China Unicom and Leaseweb (the host of VPN.ac HK2 and NordVPN HK) is terrible right now. It will probably go back to normal after the meeting in Beijing is finished.

For China Telecom, most of the normal good servers are still working very well, but sometimes you need to try a few times to connect successfully. The exception to this is ExpressVPN HK3, which is completely blocked on all 3 ISPs right now.

I have been streaming on YouTube for a while now using this server. It's very fast and stable. I'm currently streaming at over 50Mbps with NordVPN! I think that's the first time that has happened with NordVPN.

I bought a China Mobile SIM card yesterday so I can do some VPN tests using China Mobile's network.

Unfortunately, VPN connections on China Mobile seem to be extremely difficult right now. I can't believe the difference from the last time I tested China Mobile a few months ago.

This morning, I cannot connect to any server of VPN.ac or NordVPN after trying several.

I can still connect to some servers of ExpressVPN. Hong Kong 1 and Hong Kong 3 are working extremely well, but only after changing the protocol to TCP.

I'm getting around 2M with UDP and 30M with TCP on ExpressVPN's HK1 and HK3 servers with China Mobile.

Sometimes the connection will fail, but I found that if I just press cancel and try again, then it will connect on the second attempt. I believe ExpressVPN has implemented something clever here where it will change to another server on the second attempt if the first connection attempt fails. I'm not sure about this but I think they must be doing something like this.

These tests were done on my phone using China Mobile mobile data. In the results shown below, my "carrier" is shown as China Unicom. This is a bug in the Speedtest Android app when running on dual SIM card phones. I have both a China Uniocm and China Mobile SIM in my phone, but I set data to be used on the China Mobile SIM. The Speedtest app just records the carrier of the SIM card in slot 1, regardless of which SIM card is being used for mobile data.

VPN.ac Hong Kong 1, Hong Kong 2, Tokyo 1, and Tokyo 2, and Taiwan - All failed to connect with UDP. Hong Kong 2 and one other (can't remember which one) connected with TCP but there was no connectivity to the internet.

I was able to connect to some USA servers using VPN.ac but the speed was not good.

I installed the VyprVPN app on my Android but I couldn't get past the login screen. I was only able to log into my account after turning on ExpressVPN. Once I was logged in, I was able to turn ExpressVPN off and connect successfully to the VyprVPN Hong Kong server.

Surprisngly, I was able to connect using the default OpenVPN protocol with VyprVPN on China Mobile. I did not need to use Chamaeleon.

VyprVPN Hong Kong is a pretty good server for China Mobile. Direct connection, the traffic is not bounced back to USA like it is for China Telecom and China Unicom.

The download speed is not bad, but the upload speed is almost 0.

China Mobile seems to be doing a very good job of slowing down VPN connections, but TCP seems to work well if you can find a good server that you can connect to.

October 10, 2017 9:30pm to 10:00pm

Tonight, for the first time in a long time, I had trouble connecting to some VPN servers tonight.

The situation will likely not get better until this meeting is finished (and perhaps it might get even worse as we get closer to this meeting).

ExpressVPN and VPN.ac are the only 2 VPNs that are still working well for me tonight. Although their servers are getting blocked, they are rotating them fast enough to keep up with the blocking. I will sometimes fail to connect to a certain server, but it will connect successfully a short time later.

NordVPN is barely working for me tonight. None of the Hong Kong obfuscated servers connected, I was only able to connect to a USA obfuscated server with very slow speed.

VyprVPN seems to be 100% completely blocked. There is no response to a ping on any of their servers. I tried the online chat support and they didn't seem to know anything about China blocking their servers. They eventually converted my request into an email ticket and I am waiting to hear back from them.

Update - VyprVPN is working, I had blocked the "VyprVPN service" in my firewall because I noticed that it was connecting to the internet even when I was not running the VyprVPN app on my computer. I didn't like that kind of behavior, so I blocked it. After unblocking the service, VyprVPN is working (but slow as usual).

If you are using ExressVPN or VPN.ac then there is still hope for good speed and a stable connection! Here are my top tips for getting a good connection.

1. Change the protocol

For ExpressVPN, change the protocol between UDP and TCP if you fail to connect using the default "automatic" setting.

For VPN.ac, try all the different protocols and ports that are available (they offer many different options).

2. Restart your modem

Turning your modem off and then back on again will reset your PPPoE connection with your ISP and assign you a new IP address. Sometimes the ISPs will block or throttle the speed of your VPN connections and getting a new IP can stop this kind of blocking and throttling sometimes.

3. Get a second VPN

Each VPN really only has a few servers that are good in China (actually some don't have any at all).

Expand your selection of good servers by getting a second VPN. With a combination like ExpressVPN and VPN.ac, you can always find a good server.

Ok, so here are my speed test results below. I could not connect to ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 or NordVPN Hong Kong obfuscated during this test.

The VPN.ac Taiwan server can really get some great speed sometimes but it's not really stable like the ExpressVPN China Telecom CN2 servers (Hong Kong 1 and Hong Kong 3).

It's much slower now compared with the speed half an hour ago.

It's still a usable connection, but the speed is inconsistent.

October 9, 2017

As promised, here are the test results for a late night test using China Unicom. The test was done on Oct 3, 2017 but I just finished editing the YouTube video now.

If you want to see the results, you need to watch my video below :)

October 1, 2017

I'm back in Guangxi province for the October holiday.

You guys know what means...

Time to test some VPNs with China Unicom (gray color background on this page means China Unicom).

The following tests were done in Yulin, Guangxi using a China Unicom 20M connection.

Without VPN:

The ping time is a little high. The test server (located in Nanning) is hosted by China Telecom. I suspect that China Telecom prioritizes their own traffic, hence the higher than expected ping.

If you need to use Whatsapp in China, then make sure you are using a good VPN. If you are making voice calls, or especially video calls, you will need a VPN server with a fast connection to China. Use the list at the top of this page for the best VPN servers for your ISP.

September 22, 2017 9:00pm

Finally, I have time for a night time speed test.

This is the worst time to use the internet with China Telecom. International bandwidth is severely congested during this time. You would be lucky to get 1-2 Mbps with most VPN servers at 9pm on a Friday night.

Testing at 9pm will clearly separate the mediocre VPN servers from the best and most reliable VPN servers to use with China Telecom. Many VPN servers can perform well during the day. Only a select few have what it takes to perform well at night.

Very nice speed and latency. I'm surprised to see such good performance from a non-CN2 server at this time of night. I will continue testing this server during peak hours and monitor the performance over the next few days.

I normally choose a USA server when testing VyprVPN because I choose the one with the lowest latency. As their Asian servers don't have direct peering with China Telecom, the lowest latency is usually with one of the US west coast servers. Today, the latency to Tokyo was lower than normal.

Pretty slow, as usual with VyprVPN on China Telecom.

Now I am going to test a new VPN that hasn't been tested on this page before - NordVPN.

Recently, NordVPN has been advertising support for users in China so I thought I would give it another try.

They are supporting connections in China with a similar strategy as VyprVPN - By using a modified protocol or patching/scrambling the OpenVPN protocol on the client-side.

Using these custom or propriety protocols has a big disadvantage - They only work on dedicated apps with certain devices. For example, Apple doesn't allow these apps in their App store. VyprVPN found another solution for China by using the IKEv2 protocol in their iOS app. NordVPN does not currently have a solution for iOS users in China.

ExpressVPN and VPN.ac have figured out a much better solution for China.

They are scrambling the connections on the server-side instead of the client-side. Therefore, ExpressVPN and VPN.ac connections work reliably in China with standard OpenVPN clients. That means more devices are supported including the third party open source OpenVPN GUI client, Tomato/DD-WRT/OpenWRT flashed routers, and anything else using the standard, unmodified OpenVPN client.

Anyway, I had pretty good results with the NordVPN obfusicated Hong Kong servers on both my Android phone and Windows computer. I was getting around 15Mbps average download speed throughout the day.

NordVPN also has a very nice feature that I have never seen on any VPN before. The feature is called "CyberSec", which blocks advertisements and protects you from malware while connected to the VPN.

I really like this feature because it's the only way I can block ads on my new Galaxy S8+ phone right now. Normally, I always root my phone and install the AdAway app. However, I am hesitant to root my new Galaxy S8+ because it's quite expensive and I don't want void the warranty or risk bricking it just yet.

I found some ad-blocking apps in the Play store that don't require root. However, the problem with these apps is that they use the VPN interface to block ads. As I need the VPN interface to use my actual VPN app, these apps are useless for me.

I was thinking, there must be some solution to use a non-root ad-blocking app and a VPN at the same time.

The CyberSec option from NordVPN is the perfect solution for me!

Unfortunately, after using NordVPN on my Android all day, I had to turn it off at night because their servers are not fast enough during peak bandwidth hours with China Telecom.

In the meantime, I consider it a better option than VyprVPN for non-iOS devices but they still have a long way to go to match the speeds of ExpressVPN and VPN.ac during the congested night time hours on China Telecom.

I will need to test this one again at night and see how it performs. This server does not have China Telecom CN2 routing so I guess it will be slow at night (same as ExpressVPN Taiwan servers, which are also hosted on Hi-Net).

The IP address that was assigned to me is geo-located in USA. I had to manually choose a speed test server in Hong Kong to get an accurate result.

This is a common problem with ExpressVPN. I don't understand why they assign exit IPs with incorrectly registered geo-location data to many of their servers. Aside from being an annoyance, performance is degraded on websites that serve content from servers based on your geographic region.

Great latency and download speed. I will try to test this one again during China peak bandwidth hours soon and see how it performs. As I recall, this server performs well during non-peak hours but poorly during peak hours.

VyprVPN Tokyo Chameleon

VyprVPN San Francisco Chameleon

Not much to say about VyprVPN really. The Chameleon protocol works quite well, connection is always reliable. However, the speed is not great with China Telecom.

VyprVPN works fine for lite browsing, emails, social media, etc. However, if you need a fast connection for HD video streaming, downloading large files, etc then you are better off to look elsewhere.

June 20, 2017 6:30pm

There have been some changes made to the ExpressVPN Hong Kong servers. Hong Kong 4 no longer has good routing to China Telecom. However, there is good news...

Hong Kong 1 now has a new premium China Telecom routing.

It is even faster than Hong Kong 3!

The speed test page is not cooperating with me at the moment, but I assure you that it's very fast. No problems streaming YouTube in 1080P at 15,000Mbps right now.

If you are using ExpressVPN with China Telecom, I highly recommend you try the Hong Kong 1 server ASAP.

Long time, no updates. I just got out of jail. I was arrested for using a VPN, I guess I was wrong, it is illegal after all.

Just joking.

I've just been very busy recently, spending most of my free time trading bitcoins and other crypto-currencies.

I have been using ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 and my own Alibaba shadowsocks server. Nothing else is good enough for me right now. Especially when I am trading bitcoins, I need a very fast connection so I can see the order book in real time.

I found that ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4 is not quite as stable as Hong Kong 3 and can be slow sometimes so I have stopped using it. If you need the fastest and most stable VPN connection with China Telecom, then ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 is the only choice.

Even worse news for customers of StrongVPN who are using China Telecom. They have removed the HKG301 and HKG302 servers and replaced them with servers hosted on another provider.

The HKG301 and HKG302 servers were hosted on Tele Asia, which had direct peering with China Telecom. Typical ping time for me was 15ms.

The new HKG303 and HKG304 servers are hosted on some shit provider without any direct route to China Telecom.

HKG303 is routed through UK and USA! This is the worst routing I have ever seen. All the way around the world!

HKG304 is not much better...

Here are some speed test results for the HKG304 and HKG304 servers.

I am really disappointed about this server change. I feel bad for recommending StrongVPN on this blog for China Telecom customers. I have already sent my comments to the General Manager of StrongVPN. If there are any StrongVPN subscribers using China Telecom, I suggest that you send your own feedback to StrongVPN about this Hong Kong server change.

Conclusion - The same servers that I identified from my last China Mobile test continue to work very well. The maximum speed was around 10Mbps, it seemed like the speed was limited by QoS on the router at the bar or maybe they don't have a very fast line from China Mobile.

I am still recommending China Mobile as the best ISP in China for VPN connections.

May 4, 2017 5:00pm to 6:00pm

It's been a long time since I did any testing with China Unicom. I found out that you can buy a 1GB mobile data pack from China Unicom for only 5 RMB, valid for 1 day within Guangdong province only.

I bought this data pack today so I could tether my phone to my computer via the android WIFI hotspot and do some China Unicom tests.

The 4G signal is not great in my apartment, only 50% bars. Here is the speed I can get without a VPN.

Wow, the upload speed is very fast! Maybe the download speed is limited by the tower that my phone is connected to?

The tests are done in random order because I wanted to test as many different VPNs as possible before my 1GB was finished.

The tests shown in this grey background area were done using China Unicom ISP. Normally, the tests on this page are done with China Telecom unless stated otherwise.

Hong Kong 3 is always good no matter what ISP you are using. The data center of Hong Kong 3 has a direct premium line to all 3 ISPs in China. The latency is only 10ms higher than the test with no VPN and the speed is not bad either.

I don't know what happened but Leaseweb (the host of VPN.ac Hong Kong 2) had very good peering with China Unicom before. That is no longer the case. I found this same high latency when I tested one of my shadowsocks servers that is using the Leaseweb backbone.

I believe the VPN.ac Hong Kong 1 server is hosted in a new data center since the last time I tested it with China Unicom.

The speed is pretty good, still better than anything I could get using China Telecom with VyprVPN right now. However, the latency is a little too high to include this in my list of top performing servers. This server has been removed from the list.

Let's see if the StrongVPN Singapore server still has good latency to China Unicom.

The latency is just borderline acceptable for me (keep in mind that latency is a bit higher on a mobile network compared to a residential connection) and the download speed is good. I think I am going to include this in the top servers for China Unicom.

Both the Hong Kong 3 and Hong Kong 4 servers from ExpressVPN have a direct premium line to China Telecom (China Telecom CN2 routing). However, only Hong Kong 3 has the direct line to China Unicom. The Hong Kong 4 server is routed to China Unicom through Beijing and Tokyo. The routing with China Telecom is the same as Hong Kong 3 (directly to Hong Kong via Guangzhou).

Here is my trace route map using China Unicom with Hong Kong 4. As far as indirect routes go, this is one of the better ones I have seen. At least it's not routed to USA like most other Asian VPN servers.

The latency of ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4 with China Unicom would be better from Beijing / Northern China as Beijing is the transit point for the China Unicom route.

Taiwan 1 is also not performing as well as it used to with China Unicom.

I still have a few hundred MB remaining to use up today. I am going to re-test a few of the servers at 9pm tonight and see if they still perform well.

To be continued....

9pm Re-test

First, I tried VPN.ac Hong Kong 1 but it was so slow that the speed test could not even finish. I kept getting an error saying that the download failed. I guess that will not make the list of top servers for China Unicom.

VPN.ac Tokyo 2, on the other hand, is still performing very well at 9pm.

Yes, it is still fast, and that upload speed is amazing. I don't know why this server gets faster upload speeds with China Unicom than any other servers.

Conclusion based on the China Unicom tests above is that China Unicom is not as good as it was last year for VPN connections. Some of the international hosting providers that used to have low latency to China Unicom now have high latency, which has affected some of the servers I was recommending before.

However, China Unicom is still a much better option than China Telecom. Even the servers I tested today which did not make the list of top recommended servers still perform better than 99% of VPN servers with China Telecom.

If you have a China Unicom SIM card for your mobile phone and you are getting frustrated with poor VPN performance using China Telecom, you can always buy a 1-day data package from China Unicom. The cost is only 5 yuan for 1GB (can be used only in Guangdong in my case, I'm not sure if this is available in other provinces or not).

Wow, I have never seen such high latency with ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3. The ping time for me is usually 15ms - 20ms. Download speed is a little slower than usual too. China Telecom must be experiencing some network issues on their CN2 routes to Hong Kong tonight.

ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4 seems to be performing even better than Hong Kong 3 sometimes. Slightly lower ping time (still not as low as usual) and much higher download speed.

May 1, 2017 6:00pm

Happy May 1 holiday everyone!

I'm currently using ExpressVPN Hong Kong 4 to watch YouTube and it's working very well. Currently streaming at over 40Mbps. My monitor is only 1080P, that's why I'm not streaming in 4k.

May 1, 2017 12:00pm

Website visitor Joe tried to embed a speed test result in the comments section but that doesn't seem to work so I want to show his result here. He said he is using a 200Mbps China Telecom connection in Kunming, Yunnan.

I will test it some more tomorrow to see if it's also fast during peak bandwidth hours.

April 21, 2017 7:00pm

Just a quick test before I go out to see a movie. DIRK from the comments section of the Best VPN for China page said that the VyprVPN Tokyo was working good for him with China Telecom.

Unfortunately, it is not performing so well for me. High latency and low download speed.

I only had time to do the above 5 tests. I will try another test soon during peak bandwidth hours around 9pm soon. Many VPNs can perform well at this time but let's see which ones can still perform well at 9pm using China Telecom.

ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 had both the highest download speed and the lowest latency of the servers tested today. This is, by far, the absolute best server available from any VPN provider for China Telecom connections.

I tried to connect to ExpressVPN Taiwan 1 but the connection was unsuccessful so I connected to Taiwan 3 instead.

VPN.ac Germany (CN2) also has very good download speed (but high latency). VPN.ac Hong Kong 1 had both good latency and good download speed. I will continue to test it more over the next few days.

April 10, 2017

I am still on vacation in USA, just a quick announcement for those of you who have been waiting patiently for my shadowsocks tutorials. I have finished the first 2 tutorials.

Right now I am sitting on United Airlines flight UA180 from Hong Kong to Newark. There is in-flight Wi-Fi available on this flight so I purchased a pass for $17.

As you can see above, "internet video streaming is currently not supported." I tried to watch a video on YouTube but it doesn't seem to work, the video just keeps trying to load but it won't load. I guess they have blocked video streaming somehow.

What is the solution?

Of course, this problem can be solved by turning on a VPN. I am using ExpressVPN and it's working great.

The next problem is that United Airlines only allows you to connect one device simultaneously, unless you pay another $17.

What's the solution?

I transferred the connection from my phone to my computer and then followed my own tutorial and set up a virtual VPN router with ExpressVPN to share the connection with my phone. If I wasn't travelling alone, this would be even more useful because then I would be able to share my VPN Wifi connection with whoever I was travelling with as well.

The internet connection is actually not bad considering that I am 40,000 feet in the air.

The latency is not great but 2Mbps is good enough for some simple video streaming.

I will be in the USA for the next few weeks, this will probably be the last time I update this page until I go back to the land of no internet freedom. I am always available to answer questions and give advice by email so feel free to get in touch with me any time. I think have solved the problem with my emails being detected as SPAM but better check your SPAM folder just to be sure in case you have sent me an email and didn't get a reply.

March 23, 2017 9:30pm to 10:00pm

9:30pm to 10:00pm is about the worst possible time to use a VPN with China Telecom. Here is the speed of the ExpressVPN Los Angeles server, which is quite typical for any USA server at this time of night with China Telecom.

Tunneling a VPN connection over an Alibaba Hong Kong shadowsocks server is not the only way to get a fast VPN connection at this time of night. You could also just use ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 directly with China Telecom.

The advantage of tunneling the connection over shadowsocks is very useful for servers other than ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3. It will basically make any VPN server fast with China Telecom. It can be extremely useful if you need to connect to a specific server, for example, to watch Netflix, that doesn't normally have good peering with China Telecom.

I am currently working on publishing some tutorials about shadowsocks. How to make your own shadowsocks server on Alibaba Cloud, Vultr, Digital Ocean, etc, how to tunnel a VPN over shadowsocks, and more. Check back soon for updates.

March 23, 2017 3:00pm

First, a quick announcement for anyone who has sent me an email and not received a reply. Check your SPAM folder. I am having problems with my emails being detected as SPAM, specifically Gmail seems to be marking my emails as SPAM, as I found out when I sent a test email to my own Gmail account.

I am hosting my domain email on Yandex Mail, which offers free hosting that you can use with your own domain. There seems to be something with their emails that Google doesn't like. I will try to find a solution or host the email somewhere else. I could probably do without the Russian government reading my emails anyway. In the meantime, please check your SPAM folder if you are expecting an email from me. If anyone has advice on how to solve this problem, please let me know.

I just got back to Zhuhai and the first thing I did was ask my girlfriend to call China Mobile to check whether their excellent internet service is available in my apartment complex. Sadly, it is not available. Only China Telecom here.

Here is a visual trace route that I did yesterday from Jiangsu province China Mobile to VyprVPN Hong Kong.

Now, here is the visual trace route to the same server today using China Telecom.

What the trace route shows is how exactly how the connection is made between my computer and the VyprVPN Hong Kong server. The China Telecom routing to VyprVPN Hong Kong is a classic example of non-direct peering that is very common with China Telecom. As you can see, the data is routed from Zhuhai to Guangzhou to California to Hong Kong. Hence, the high latency (ping time).

You should never connect to a VPN server with this kind of routing. It's a bad choice no matter where the website is that you are trying to access. If you are using a VPN connection like this to access a website hosted in Asia, then your data is going across the Pacific Ocean and back before making the connection to the website. If you are accessing a website hosted in USA, then all of your data is making 2 round trips across the Pacific Ocean. You are better off just connecting directly to a USA server.

March 22, 2017 12:00pm to 1:00pm

I decided to skip lunch today so I can find more high performance VPN servers for China Mobile. It's really not hard to find good servers with China Mobile, almost all of the ones I tried are good.

Aside from the testing, the server I am using normally on China Mobile is ExpressVPN Singapore Jurong. It's very fast and extremely stable.

The VPN.ac Hong Kong 2 server actually has the lowest latency and highest download speed of all the servers I tested today. This server is great with both China Unicom and China Mobile. Unfortunately, not so good with China Telecom.

I have updated the list of top recommended servers at the top of this page and included some top recommended servers for China Mobile. I would like to do more testing with China Mobile. If anyone knows of any bars, restaurants, or cafes in Zhuhai that offer China Mobile WIFI, please let me know.

March 21, 2017 1:00pm

I am currently on a business trip in Jiangsu province, and I am using an internet connection from China Mobile right now.

China Mobile is even better than China Unicom for VPN connections. If you have a choice of ISP in China, I recommend China Mobile, China Unicom, and then China Telecom, in that order.

I just ran the ExpressVPN server speed test in the Windows software. Wow, there are so many servers with latency under 100ms that I can't even show all of them to you in a single screenshot.

I don't have time to test all of these, so I will just test a few of them.

Actually, I don't think it's very difficult to find good servers with any VPN if you are using China Mobile.

Any China Mobile users out there? What servers work good for you? Leave your comments at the bottom of the page.

March 18, 2017 8:30pm

I think I just found the fastest possible way to watch Netflix from China.

I have finally figured out how to tunnel ExpressVPN over a shadowsocks proxy using the Viscosity client. At first, it didn't work because the ExpressVPN manual OpenVPN configuration files are for UDP and shadowsocks can only tunnel a TCP connection.

After making some changes to the ovpn file (add line "proto tcp", change port to 443, delete line "fragment 1300), I was able to connect using TCP and then tunnel the connection over my Alibaba Hong Kong shadowsocks server.

Here is the Netflix streaming speed before and after tunneling the connection over my Alibaba Hong Kong shadowsocks server.

I am at a bar right now using their China Telecom WIFI, which is very slow. I turned the WIFI off and thought now might be a good chance to test some top rated VPN servers for China Unicom using my mobile data.

As I have said many times before, China Unicom and China Mobile are much better for VPN connections because their international bandwidth is not nearly as oversold as China Telecom. Even at 9:45pm on a Friday night, I am getting pretty good speeds, much better than anything you can get from China Telecom at this time unless you are using ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3.

VPN.ac Germany (CN2) was recommended in the comment section by website visitor gyxrhy. I was testing it a little yesterday and again tonight. The latency is a too high for my liking, but I can often get decent download speed, even during peak hours. I would recommend this server when latency is not important, such as for torrenting.

VPN.ac also has some "CN2" servers in Los Angeles, but those ones don't perform so well.

Today I found out something very interesting - VPN over shadowsocks. It's really fast and way more secure than just using shadowsocks by itself.

One of the things that I don't like about shadowsocks, despite the amazing fast speed, is that it is not as secure as a VPN. It's not really safe or suitable for torrenting. It also doesn't work with all kinds of traffic and all programs. Well, I think I have found a solution to all of these problems.

VPN over shadowsocks

I remembered that TorGuard has a feature called "Stealth Proxy" which runs the VPN over TorGuard's own SOCKS5 proxy.

I have tried this before using all of the available proxy servers and it does connect but it's extremely slow. In fact, I wanted to do a speed test for this blog post to show you how slow it is but it was so slow that I couldn't even load speedtest.net.

Anyway, my goal was to see if I could get my own shadowsocks proxy hosted on Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) to work through TorGuard. I happy to report that it works great!

Not bad speed for 8pm. Not quite as fast as pure shadowsocks but still very good.

TorGuard is hosting their Hong Kong server on Softlayer which does not make direct connections to China Telecom. Normally, this would be a terrible choice of a VPN server if you are in China. The ping time between me and Softlayer server is over 200ms without a VPN or proxy.

Here is my traceroute to this Hong Kong server. You can see how Softlayer bounces the traffic to Malaysia and then Japan to avoid making a direct connection to China Telecom.

However, when I tunnel the connection through my Hong Kong Aliyun shadowsocks server, the ping time is only 18ms, as you can see in the speed test result posted above.

This solves 2 of the main problems I had with shadowsocks - lack of security/anonymity and not having all traffic routed over the VPN or proxy.

Now I can enjoy the blazing fast speed of shadowsocks with the security and anonymity of a full VPN.

Seeing how TorGuard is a popular choice for torrenting, I decided to test the speed by downloading a torrent. Although technically it's possible to torrent over shadowsocks, it's generally not a good idea, especially not on a VPS, and especially not on Alibaba's servers.

No problems torrenting with VPN over shadowsocks though, because now all of my traffic is encrypted and cannot be seen by Alibaba. Speed is pretty good too, 8 MB/s * 8 = 64Mbps

Fast on YouTube too.

Out of curiosity, I disconnected from TorGuard and then changed the stealth proxy option to use TorGuard's proxy instead of my own. Watch what happened to the YouTube streaming speed.

If you are running your own fast shadowsocks server with good routing out of China and want to tunnel a VPN through it, here are the instructions.

Step 1 - Sign up for TorGuard's "Anonymous VPN" package

Not to be confused with the "anonymous proxy" or other services they offer. The anonymous VPN is what you want. Use the link below and save 50% for the life of your account. This will only cost you $30 for an entire year using this promo.

Open the shadowsocks client and choose your shadowsocks server but do not enable the system proxy. Leave the "Enable system proxy" option un-checked as shown below.

Step 3 - Connect shadowsocks to TorGuard

As long as the shadowsocks client is running, the proxy is still running on port 1080 of your computer. You just need to tell the TorGuard client where to find it. In the TorGuard client, choose "more settings" and then under the "Proxy" tab, choose "specify custom proxy server" and enter the following settings:

Type: Socks5

Address: 127.0.0.1

Port: 1080

Step 4 - Connect to Torguard

Any server will work good, you don't need to use the Hong Kong server. As long as you have a good route out of China on your shadowsocks server then you will get good performance with just about anything.

For example, Los Angeles is working quite well too.

If you want to try this but don't have your own shadowsocks server, you can send me an email. I am currently running 9 servers that I am sharing for free with my friends and readers of this blog until the end of this month.

February 22, 2017 12:00am

StrongVPN is having another sale. Save 50% off any plan (monthly or annual) - this week only!

The Hong Kong HKG301/HKG302 OpenVPN server has very good routing to China Telecom. Only $35 for 1 year is an amazing deal to get access to one of the top servers for China Telecom connections. There is also a 5 day money back guarantee so you can try it risk-free.

Just remember that StrongVPN does not have nice apps or a good interface. I only recommend it because of their one good server location for China Telecom HKG301/HKG302.

After getting fed up with StrongVPN's buggy Window software, I decided to use Viscosity to connect to StrongVPN instead of their dedicated software. I don't know if it's because of using a third party client or what, but the speed is much faster than it was the last time I connected.

Viscosity normally costs $9 for a license but I got a free license with my 12VPN subscription. If you want to use a third party OpenVPN client, you don't have a 12VPN subscription, and you don't want to spend $9 on Viscosity, you can also connect using the OpenVPN GUI application.

February 19, 2017 11:00am

I haven't used StrongVPN for a long time so I thought I would give it a try this morning. The performance is slower than usual.

I have never experienced anything this fast before. It's crazy fast in the morning, the afternoon, and all night. I was getting close to 60M streaming speed from YouTube at 10:00pm last night.

If you know how to set up your own shadowsocks or VPN server on a VPS, I highly recommend the Aliyun Hong Kong location. They are currently offering the deal of a lifetime called an ECS Starter Package for only USD $8/month including instance, storage, and 2TB of free data transfer!

Normally, you need to pay USD $0.153 per GB of data transfer for the Hong Kong location, so the 2TB of free data transfer alone is worth over USD $300. Jack Ma must be losing a fortune by offering this deal.

Here is what you need to know about this promotion of a lifetime.

This promotion is only available on the Aliyun international website. If you are in China, you need to open the link with a VPN or proxy turned on, otherwise you will be redirected to the domestic site. There is no promotion for free data transfer on the domestic site, the cost is 1 RMB per GB plus instance fees and storage fees.

You must verify a credit card that was issued OUTSIDE OF MAINLAND CHINA. If you don't have a credit card that was issued outside of mainland China then you cannot take advantage of this promotion.

The port speed is limited to 30Mbps for starter package VPS but you can buy a second VPS at the normal price with a 200Mbps port and share the free data from the starter package. Basically, you end up paying $16 in total for 2 servers (30Mbps port and 100Mbps port) with 2TB of free data transfer shared between the 2 servers. If you are just using it by yourself then this isn't really necessary because 30Mbps is good enough for most people.

As far as I know, there is no way to automatically stop the VPS after you have reached 2TB. You need to be careful because you will be billed at the pay-as-you-go rate of $0.153 per GB if you exceed 2TB.

The promotion ends on March 31, 2017. You will get the free 2TB of data transfer for every starter package purchased or renewed before March 31, 2017.

February 18, 2017 6:00pm

I have been busy setting up and testing shadowsocks proxy servers over the past week, I haven't used a VPN in almost a week! ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 is still fast and stable AF on my Linksys WRT1900ACv2. I never need to restart this router or change the settings, it's always connected and always fast. I have this router plugged into my main router and even after not using it for 1 week, it's still connected and performing well.

The ExpressVPN router app is only available for Linksys WRT1200AC and WRT1900AC(S) series of routers. I highly recommend getting one of these routers with ExpressVPN if you want the best performing VPN router solution.

These routers are expensive but they are very good routers with powerful CPU that can run OpenVPN very well.

February 7, 2017 8:00pm

From 7pm to 8pm, I have been watching YouTube with StrongVPN HKG302. At first, the speed was not stable but then I enabled the scramble option and changed the port to TCP. Then, it was faster and more stable. No problems watching YouTube in 720P (the maximum resolution of the video I was watching).

The ExpressVPN Taiwan 1 server is much slower at night. Actually, almost every VPN connection is slow at night if you use China Telecom. The only way to get a fast route for your data out of China during the peak night time hours is with a good Hong Kong server.

Finding a high performance VPN server is much easier with China Unicom. I highly recommend using China Unicom ISP if it's available in your area.

February 7, 2017 12:30pm

Just a quick test of ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 and Taiwan 1. I will try to do more testing with Taiwan 1 in the future because some people don't have Hong Kong 3 in their account.

If I have time tonight, I will do another test around 8pm during peak bandwidth hours.

February 7, 2017 12:00pm

I tested the new iOS app from VPN.ac yesterday. Generally, the IKEv2 protocol used in the app doesn't work very well in China but it does work very well on one of the servers (Los Angeles). Check my new blog post on IKEv2 in China for more information.

February 4, 2017 10:30am

I forgot to mention something yesterday, it looks like the StrongVPN Hong Kong OpenVPN servers HKG301 and HKG302 are becoming too popular again. I had changed the server to a USA location for Netflix testing a few days ago and when I tried to change it back to HKG301/HKG302 yesterday, those servers were both full. Remember, StrongVPN server assignment works differently than other VPNs, you need to assign a specific server to your account and you can only use that server.

For those of you who have not followed my 2016 VPN blog, here is a summary of what I think about StrongVPN.

StrongVPN has the worst apps and user-friendliness of any of the VPNs that I recommend. It's only good if you know how to use it. They have one good server location for China Telecom (HKG301/HKG302 hosted on Tele Asia) and one good server location for China Unicom (All Singapore servers hosted on Highwinds). Everything else is basically garbage and not worth using.

The Windows software is especially buggy. When changing server locations, it doesn't tell you whether the server is full or not so you will get some weird error if you try to change to a server that is full. Changing between UDP and TCP in the drop-down selector on the main screen doesn't do anything. You can change between UDP and TCP in the advanced settings but setting the scramble option (stealth mode) doesn't work. Setting the scramble option can only be done from the customer portal of the website. Actually, I recommend only using the customer portal to change servers and settings to ensure that it is done properly.

After connecting the first time, I often don't have any connectivity to the internet. I need to disconnect and connect again, then it's fine.

For iOS, I recommend using the third party OpenVPN Connect client because their app uses IKEV2 protocol which doesn't work very well in China. The good sever for China Telecom (HKG301/HKG302) is only available with OpenVPN anyway.

Despite all of these complaints, I still recommend it for the Hong Kong OpenVPN server if you are using China Telecom. After ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3, it's the second best server for China Telecom.

StrongVPN prices are very reasonable, only $10 per month or $69.99 per year. If you want to try it out, use the coupon code here for 25% off. Valid for the first billing cycle only. The money back guarantee is 5 days only.

Latency of around 150ms is the normal latency for me on this server. I was surprised that it was only 80ms yesterday.

That's all for today, have a great day everyone.

February 3, 2017 5:00pm to 6:30pm

I'm back at home now in Zhuhai using China Telecom. First, I am going to test the new TorGuard Hong Kong Cisco Anyconnect servers. They performed decently using China Unicom, check the test results from January 26, 2017 below for the details. If you want to try out TorGuard, here is what you need to know.

The TorGuard website is blocked in China and they don't have an alternative mirror site so you will need to use another VPN or proxy in order to sign up if you are in China.

The only decent server they have for connecting from China is the Hong Kong Sunny Vision server that is only available using Cisco Anyconnect. They have both Sunny Vision servers and Intermap servers on the same server location. You will be assigned one randomly each time you connect. If you want the Sunny Vision server, you need to keep disconnecting and reconnecting until you get an IP address from Sunny Vision. You can look up your IP address here or you can also see it when you load speedtest.net. Once you get a Sunny Vision IP address, you enter that IP directing in the Cisco Anyconnect client instead of using the host name.

The Cisco Anyconnect client is available for iOS, Mac OS, Windows, and Chromebook.

I have never got good speeds from any of the servers available in the Torguard apps but you are welcome to try that out as well, it is possible to connect from China.

This VPN.ac Hong Kong 2 server performs much better with China Unicom. When connecting from China Unicom, the latency is only 1/4 of the latency with China Telecom even though I am now much closer to Hong Kong here in Zhuhai, Guangdong compared to Guangxi province, where I was using China Unicom. The download speed with China Unicom is over 10 times faster even though I was only using a 20M connection compared to my 100M connection here in Zhuhai with China Telecom.

I've had enough of these low speeds, time to test ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3.

The latency is much better than usual for this server and the download speed is not bad either. I started watching YouTube and it was streaming great for a while but then it became slow.

Retest of VPN.ac Tokyo 2 after connected for 15 mintues

I have always found this server to be unstable. Sometimes it's great, but it's very inconsistent. This server seems to work better with China Unicom and China Mobile, especially in the North of China, geographically closer to Japan. As I recall, this server was one of the best performing servers when I was using China Mobile ISP during a business trip to Zhejiang province last year, near Shanghai.

That's all the time I have for testing today, I have some other work to do now. Back to ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3...

Happy Chinese new year everyone!

The tests shown in this grey background area were done using China Unicom ISP. Normally, the tests are done with China Telecom. In my experience, China Unicom is much better for VPN connections compared to China Telecom.

January 28, 2017

Happy Chinese new year everyone! Last night my computer froze and then wouldn't boot after I turned it off. I finally got it to boot again after using the repair Windows option in the advanced boot menu.

I am continuing the hunt for USA servers with latency under 200ms and download speed above 10 Mbps to China Unicom.

The above server is incorrectly geo-located on the east coast USA. I had to manually choose a test server in Los Angeles to properly test the speed and latency of this server.

January 27, 2017

VyprVPN Singapore server has better latency to China Unicom today. While it doesn't strictly meet my requirement of under 100ms, 118ms is not too bad. Download speed is excellent and the connection is very stable.

VyprVPN Singapore OpenVPN 160bit

I think that is all the decent Asian servers for China Unicom that I can find. Now, I will be looking for good US servers. I am looking for servers with ping time under 200ms and download speed higher than 10 Mbps.

VPN.ac Los Angeles 4 / US West Coast CN2 peer (these both connect to the same server)

January 26, 2017

Today I am going to be testing ExpressVPN, VPN.ac, StrongVPN, 12VPN, VyprVPN, and TorGuard to find the servers with best speed and latency for China Unicom connections. The requirements to make this list are ping time under 100ms and download speed higher than 10 Mbps. I will post the servers below as I find them.

For StrongVPN, I used the their server speed test page to find the best server. You can also use this page to test your speed and latency to StrongVPN servers, you don't need to be a customer to use the tool. If you want to try the server speed test tool, remember to set the option for shared IP, the dynamic IP and static IP options are no longer offered for new accounts. The best performing server I could find for China Unicom was Singapore SIN101, the speed test result is shown below.

StrongVPN has separate servers for OpenVPN and PPTP/L2TP/SSTP, this SIN101 server is for PPTP/L2TP/SSTP so I tried L2TP at first but didn't get good speed. The SSTP was much faster. Normally, the SSTP protocol doesn't work very well for me when using China Telecom at home but it seems to work quite well with China Unicom.

I suspect that PPTP would also be fast but PPTP is an insecure protocol so I didn't bother trying it.

If you try the StrongVPN speed testing page and l like what you see, remember to use this link to save 15% on an annual StrongVPN account if you want to try it. There is a 5 day money back guarantee as well. StrongVPN is a great value if you know how to use it properly. There is 1 good server for China Unicom (Singapore PPTP/L2TP/SSTP) and 1 good server for China Telecom (Hong Kong OpenVPN). The software is not very good or user-friendly, but for me, having the Hong Kong OpenVPN server for China Telecom makes it worth the cost. Actually, this is the second best server I have ever used for China Telecom, the first is ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 of course.

I don't often test 12VPN because they don't have any high performance servers for China Telecom. However, they do have some decent servers for China Unicom. 12VPN is also not my personal favorite VPN because their service is more geared towards proxy instead of VPN connections. They don't have any dedicated software for VPN connections, you can only connect using third party programs such as OpenConnect, Viscosity, or SoftEther. I also don't like the fact that they don't allow torrenting and don't support Netflix. If you using China Unicom, don't watch Netflix, don't use BitTorrent, and don't mind using a third party VPN client or connecting by proxy instead of VPN, then I highly recommend you try out 12VPN (use my coupon code TIPS25 for a 25% discount on any unlimited plan).

Now that we are on the topic of different VPNs hosting servers in the same data centers, I remembered that TorGuard recently introduced some new servers available exclusively with the Cisco Anyconnect protocol. One of the Hong Kong servers is hosted on Sunny Vision, the same host as the VPN.ac Hong Kong 1 location (Sunny Vision).

TorGuard claims that the Cisco Anyconnect protocol is "Optmized to work in China through iOS or for any highly restricted work or college network." Currently, you can download Cisco AnyConnect clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Chromebook from the TorGuard website. When connecting to the Hong Kong location, there are actually 2 different data centers, you will be assigned a server randomly from either Sunny Vision or Intermap. The Sunny Vision server has good latency to both China Unicom and China Telecom but the Intermap server does not have direct peering with either ISP in China. After connecting to a Sunny Vision server, I then copied the IP address and use the IP directly instead of the host name to make sure I get a Sunny Vision server each time I connect.

I have been testing TorGuard for a while now but I didn't get good enough performance from China to mention it as a good option for China yet. Although this Sunny Vision server from TorGuard doesn't quite meet my download speed requirement of 10 Mbps, it's close enough.

Maybe this Cisco Anyconnect protocol really does work better than other protocols when connecting from China. However, it still doesn't work as good as the VPN.ac Hong Kong 2 location with OpenVPN connecting from China Unicom. If you are on a tight budget for a VPN, TorGuard is very cheap. It's only $30 for a year using the 50% off discount. Unfortunately, their website is blocked in China and they don't have an alternative mirror site so you will need to connect to another VPN or proxy if you want to sign up from China.

That's all for now, I might find some good USA servers tonight if I have time.

January 25, 2017 2:00pm

I am now in my girlfriend's hometown in Yulin, Guangxi using a China Unicom 20M internet connection. You can see my location on the map below.

The best server I can find right now is VPN.ac Hong Kong 2. My download speed is a little bit higher than the advertised 20M bandwidth from China Unicom. Latency is excellent too considering my location.

I haven't been using VPN.ac much recently at home with my China Telecom ISP connection because I am not getting the same good performance as I used to. The Hong Kong 1 server used to be very fast with China Telecom using OpenVPN TCP but not anymore. For China Telecom, the best options for me are ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 and StrongVPN Hong Kong HKG301/HKG302. For China Unicom, I think this VPN.ac Hong Kong 2 server might be the best one. I will continue testing more servers with China Unicom over the next few days. Check back here soon!

January 24, 2017 12:00pm

If you have read in the news recently that VPNs are now illegal in China, please check my blog post about on this subject.

I have been using ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 on my VPN router as my exclusive internet connection over the past few days while at home. When outside, I have been using VyprVPN Singapore with my China Unicom mobile data.

I didn't have much time for testing the speeds of other VPNs recently. ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 is working so good that I just use my VPN router all the time, I don't ever feel the need to change to my main router WIFI and use any other VPNs. The latency on this server is so good that I still use the VPN for Taobao and Chinese online banking.

I am getting ready to go to my girlfriend's hometown in Guangxi province today, here are a few quick test results.

Sorry that I don't have time to test more today. The next test will be using China Unicom ISP in Guangxi and will be more extensive. If there are any China Unicom ISP users reading this, please leave me your server suggestions in the comment section below.

It looks like VyprVPN have made some improvements to their VPN performance in China. The speed is much faster than before and it's also possible to connect to most servers using standard OpenVPN, no need for Chameleon anymore. OpenVPN is faster than Chameleon.

I am getting good speed from the VyprVPN Taiwan server but the latency is still not great.

Unfortunately, the connection between VyprVPN Asian servers and China Telecom is still done via USA, hence the high latency. Although this USA route is not good for latency, there does seem to be plenty of bandwidth available.

Here are some more speed tests with other VPNs. I can't find anything as fast as VyprVPN right now, but there is certainly better latency available.

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